A new year? in A small but passable life.

Well, well, well. The human species survived another of its self proclaimed ‘years’.

Me? Since I’m on Level 57 I don’t really give a shit. Just another day. Just another year.

Daughter and her boyfriend and Liam Dog are on a road trip to fetch a washer and dryer. She’s already bought a dining table and four chairs for $50. Those look nice in the kitchen and we’ve actually been setting the table for dinner. Yep, we’re finally getting civilized. We’ve never had a table before. Unless you count the breakfast nook thingy we had in the apartment. That was more extra counter space than a table for dining.

Anyway, now Daughter won’t have to haul dirty duds to the laundromat. I think she got the set for $50. So they should pay for themselves rather quickly.

I finished reading “Rogue Lawyer” by John Grisham yesterday. A fine story. It seems as if Mr. Grisham is getting rather jaded and cynical of the US so-called legal system. It has really come out in several of his latest books. In this latest one he really rails on the stupidity of the system and the stupidity of the ever growing militarization of the police and how they are so pants-wetting scared of everything and everybody now. It was a fine book to read.

That made the total books read for 2015 thirty-three. Not too bad considering the three trips to the desert and the one month in the woods.

I found an email yesterday from the library saying there is another book now waiting for me to pick up. It was another off my list that I’d ordered when I checked out the Grisham book last Tuesday. I need to get online and see if the library is open tomorrow. If not I’ll have to wait for Monday.

We finished up the month of December with 11.61 inches of rain. That’s a good nine inches over the average. Even more rain fell East of here, causing another “one hundred year” flood. The last “one hundred year” flood was 1993, the year Daughter was born. I guess they’ll need to be called “twenty-two year” floods from now on?

I’ve got two months to get ready for March. At least for the month of March I’ll be out in the woods somewhere. I’ll either be hiking the 200-and-something mile Ozark Trail or I’ll be camped somewhere for the month. I’m just going to convince myself that the weather will be as perfect as it was last year, maybe even better. And it was perfect last March. There was, if I remember right, only one night the temperature fell slightly below freezing. And that was sometime during the last week. There were thunderstorms and rain, but no snow or ice.

Oh yeah, the arm wasn’t broken, just sore for a day. Still a little painful when pressed upon. And I may end up with another scar, about five inches long, parallel to an older two inch scar.

I’m pretty proud of the amount of money I’ve spent this past year:

I bought a 110volt table lamp and 60watt LED bulb for about $14. (Still need a lampshade for it.)

I bought a bolt, nut and washers to fix my lawn chair for $1.12. (Should fix the other side BEFORE it breaks?)

I bought personal hygiene items for a little over $8. (Bar soap, shaving cream, razors, deodorant. Enough to last a year or more.)

I bought two cans of stove fuel for $10. I bought a fancy camp cup for $5.

Thrift store purchases were a shirt, coffee mug, wallet, and a Nalgene bottle. That totaled $2.50.

And I think I’ve bought a few packs of smokes for stress relief a time or two. So we’ll add about $10.

So that’s it. Less than $50 spent for the entire year.

Yes Mother, I’m just “mooching” off the entire world! Whatever!

The kicker is that even the little I bought was not necessary for life sustaining. Totally extraneous to/for life.

Anyway, I’ve got to get the back porch ready for the washer and dryer delivery. Daughter bought a weather strip for the bottom of the back door I need to install also. I forgot to ask her if she found the hooks to hang the bicycles with.

So yeah, 2016 has arrived. I hope it is good for everyone!